Research Proposal: Communication, Quality, and Project Delivery

This research proposal examines the critical role of communication in project management, focusing on its impact on timely project delivery and quality maintenance. The study aims to identify how communication influences project success, considering both internal and external communication channels. The research will explore the contribution of new technologies in enhancing communication within projects and assess the percentage of project success attributed to effective communication strategies. The methodology involves a review of existing literature, and quantitative data collection through survey questionnaires to gather insights from various organizations. Key variables include communication (independent variable), quality, and time (dependent variables). The research intends to provide valuable insights for project managers and organizations, emphasizing the importance of fostering effective communication to achieve project goals efficiently and maintain high-quality outcomes. The proposal also highlights the need for ethical considerations in research and the importance of unbiased analysis of the results.

Preliminary Research Proposal (20%)
Guidelines for Completing this form:
- The form should be completed using Calibri font, size 12, 1.5 spacing.
- Students must provide answer for every question.
- Word counts for individual questions must not be exceeded.
- The completed form must be submitted via moodle using the CA2 link ahead of
the deadline (check CA2 submission link for deadline date)
Section A. Applicant Details
Student Name
Student Number
Submission Date
Module Code
Program Code and Name
Research Methods Lecturer
Section B. Project Title (15 words)
Assessing the impact of communication in maintaining quality and timely delivery of project
activities.
Section C. Aims & Rationale
1. Briefly introduce your research topic, highlighting the key issues around which your
project is based and the potential value of your project. (500 words)
In any project communication has a major role to play. It can be the reason for the
success or can also be the same for failure of a project. In any of the successful project
till date, it can be found out that communication was one of the major supporting pillars.
Communication is important in the context of medium complexity, maintenance of the
project as well as innovations to be done in the project. In a project both internal as well
as external communication is important as only focussing on any one of these will not be

of help (Butt, Naaranoja and Savolainen 2016). External communication refers to the
communication that is required to be done with the external stakeholders while internal
communication refers to the interaction of the employees within the premises where
the project is being carried out. Studies suggest that a manager who achieves success in
a project is seen to be spending more than 80 percent of his time in communication
(Yap, Abdul-Rahman and Chen 2017). This is the evidence that communication is
important in project for maintenance of the quality output of project as well as to check
that the results of the project are delivered on time. It can be said that each and every
project is initiated on the basis of strong correspondence design. This can be considered
as a fundamental methodology that points out what exactly effective communication
will look like on undertaking a give task in a project. The main role is that of a project
manager and the whole communication in the project depends on the communication
skills of the project manager (Barry 2015). The structure of an organization is also an
important factor to come up with effective communication system in a project. The
Project Management Institute mentions that one of the most important factors in
successful project delivery is the supportive organizational structure for communication.
The governance is another major support to a project and this can be highly linked to the
communication in a project. Good governance can be done only if the communication
skills of the ones leading the project are good. The medium of communication and tone
are some of the important attributes in this context. In order to become a good project
manager and to foster communication one needs to have a proper understanding of the
values as well as the attitudes of the members and consider their opinions. Two-way
communication is what is desired in any project proceeding as only downward
communication would not help. Upward communication that is the communication from
the employees or team member’s end is equally important in any project. The views and
opinions of the ones those who are working on site are important as their practical
knowledge can help in taking effective decisions in a project (de Araújo and Pedron
2015). Meetings and conferences should be an important part of the project
proceedings as this will the only way to foster communication. The good communication
environment reduces cost as well as wastage of time in a project. Communication thus is

also a vital element of project activities.
2. Describe clearly the aims and objectives of your research project (200 words)
The aim of this study is to find out in what ways communication in a project helps in
timely completion and quality maintenance of the project deliverables. The importance
of communication in the success of a project will be discussed along with the role that
managerial communication has in this context. The external as well as the internal
communications happening in a project will be considered as both of these are essential.
The modern tools that are being used by project managers to enhance communication
within a project will also find a place in this discussion as technology has brought in a lot
of transformations in the various processes involved in communication. Overall, the
content will be laid down to assess how communication serves as the backbone of
different tasks in the context of project management activities especially in maintaining
quality and timely delivery of project activities.
The objectives of the project are as follows:
1. To find out whether communication has any role to play in maintaining quality and
timely delivery of project activities.
2. To figure out the contribution of new technologies in enhancing communication in a
project.
3. To find out what percentage of project success depends on communication.
3. What is your research question? (50 words)
The research questions are as follows:
1. What role does communication play in maintaining quality and timely delivery of project
activities?
2. How new technologies being adopted by project managers are enhancing communication
to support timely delivery of project activities and maintain quality?

3. What percentage of project success depends on communication?
4. What will be the main contribution and/or value arising from your research project?
(200 words)
The research will focus not on the wide role of communication but on its impact on timely a
delivery of project outcomes and maintenance of quality. Qualities as well as time are two
important aspects of a project but not many studies focus on the link between
communication and these two factors.
The project will help organizations that are dealing with project failures to understand what
the importance of communication in their work is. This will also be helpful for the society as
the message conveyed is effective communication can help in achieving success in any
venture.
Firstly, this research will be valuable as well as beneficial to me as I will get to understand the
importance of communication. Secondly, it will be valuable for all those who are searching
for enhancing their organizational communication. This research will beneficial to them as
the outcomes will give them the required motivation to bring in the necessary
transformations in their organizational structure so that communication can be fostered.
The potential implications of the findings of this research is that effective communication
helps in maintaining quality and delivering the project outcomes in the time as was scheduled
at the time of initiation.
Section D. Methodology
1. Describe the key concepts/variables that you will need to measure, with emphasis on how
you have conceptualised them and how you might operationalise them (400 words)
In this study, the variables are communication and quality and time in project
activities. Communication is the independent variable and quality and time are the
dependent ones. The reason being quality as well as time depends on communication
and the project is about the impact of the latter on the former.
In order to understand the concept better, existing literature has been reviewed and
it will be reviewed in more detailed manner in the final project. The advantages of

literature review are that it provides the researcher with a strong base and
background knowledge to go ahead with his research (Boell and Cecez-Kecmanovic
2015). Analysis of the literary works by authors gives a vivid and clear notion as to in
which direction the research should be proceeded with. This helps in recognizing the
gap in literature which is to be addresses in the research (Hart 2018). Thus it can be
said that conducting literature review forms an important part of any research and
this research is no exception.
The research will consider quantitative data collection methodology that helps in
obtaining accurate data which will be analyzed later for drawing conclusions. Survey
questionnaire will be made use of to involve participants from different organizations
so that their perception about a communication and practical knowledge in facing
project success or project failure (Antwi and Hamza 2015). By using the survey
questionnaire a higher sample size can be reached and information can be collected in
a quick manner. The results of the research can also be retraced which is not possible
in case of qualitative research.
Communication is linked to many aspects such as time, quality, decision making and
many more. In project management, communication can be said to be dynamic in
nature and thus when analyzing the impact of communication on the timely delivery
of the project deliverables and quality maintenance it is necessary that every type of
communication that happens in a project be considered. The skills of communication
of project manager and the way leadership can be linked with communication needs
to be assessed as well. The survey questionnaire will contain related questions to the
topic and the questions will be so prepared that all the intricacies related to
communication in project management get covered (Hoy and Adams 2015). The
research ethics will be abided by and it will be ensured that while conducting the
research no one is harmed. The results will be displayed and analyzed so that there is
no influence of personal views on outcomes.

References
Antwi, S.K. and Hamza, K., 2015. Qualitative and quantitative research paradigms in
business research: A philosophical reflection. European journal of business and
management, 7(3), pp.217-225.
Barry, T.R., 2015. Top 10 qualities of a project manager. Project Smart.
Boell, S.K. and Cecez-Kecmanovic, D., 2015. On being ‘systematic’in literature reviews.
In Formulating Research Methods for Information Systems (pp. 48-78). Palgrave
Macmillan, London.
Butt, A., Naaranoja, M. and Savolainen, J., 2016. Project change stakeholder
communication. International Journal of Project Management, 34(8), pp.1579-1595.
de Araújo, C.C.S. and Pedron, C.D., 2015. The IT project manager competencies that
impact project success–A qualitative research. Organisational Project Management, 2(1),
pp.53-75.
Hart, C., 2018. Doing a literature review: Releasing the research imagination. Sage.
Hoy, W.K. and Adams, C.M., 2015. Quantitative research in education: A primer. Sage
Publications.

Yap, J.B.H., Abdul-Rahman, H. and Chen, W., 2017. Collaborative model: Managing
design changes with reusable project experiences through project learning and effective
communication. International Journal of Project Management, 35(7), pp.1253-1271.